| 1. |
- Mattsson, Janet
(författare)
-
Uncovering pain and caring for children in the pediatric intensive care unit : nurses’ clinical approach and parent’s perspective
- 2013
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background: The thesis has a standpoint in a synthesis of caring science and educationscience from a clinical perspective. Children in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) are in an exposed position, dependent on nurses to acknowledge their needs. The alleviation of children’s pain has been investigated from various perspectives, but undertreated pain remains a problem in the PICU. There is a preponderance of empirical evidence pointing toward the role of nurses in uncovering children’s pain and suffering. How nurses interpret the child’s expressions and judge the clinical situation influences their actions in the clinical care. In a PICU, the basis for nurses’ concerns and interpretation of what is meaningful in the nursing care situation are formed by professional concern, workplace culture, traditions, habits, and workplace structures. This influences how parents interpret the meaning of care as well. Patricia Benner’s theory on clinical judgment forms a reference framework for this thesis. The assumption is that children need to be approached from a holistic perspective in the caring situation in order to acknowledge their caring needs. A nurse’s clinical education and insights allow for the possibility to enhance the quality of care for children and parents in the PICU.Aim: To uncover clinical concerns, from caring and learning perspectives, in caring for children in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) from nurses and parents perspective.Methods: Qualitative methods were used in all studies to unfold and explore the phenomena in the nurses’ and parents’ everyday clinical life world. In Papers I and II, a phenomenographic method was adopted. In Papers III and IV, an interpretive phenomenological approach was adopted.Findings: Nurses that have a holistic view of the child and approach the child from a multidimensional perspective, with a focus on the individual child and his/her caring needs, develop a clinical “connoisseurship” and meet the parents’ expectations of the meaning of care. The nurses express that it is only when they focus on the child that subtle signs of pain are revealed. The meaning of nursing care, in the ideal case, is a holistic care where all aspects are integrated and the child as a person has first priority.Conclusion: The meaning of caring and children’s needs must become elucidated to improve the cultural influence of what can be seen as good nursing care within the PICU.
|
|
| 2. |
- Olsson, Louise
(författare)
-
Hopp hos döende patienter med cancer i palliativ hemsjukvård
- 2011
-
Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Hope is meaningful and very important for people – even for people at the last days of their lives. Health professionals can sometimes describe hope in terms of hope for a cure, which may lead to feelings of hopelessness or empty hope for a patient with an incurable disease. In research, there is very little written about hope in the palliative home care context, even more so from the patient’s perspective. The aim of this project was to study how hope changes over time in cancer patients at the palliative phase, and to study the strategies used to cope with these changes. This was studied from the patients’ own perspective and in a home care context, but with the ambition of developing the results into a model or theory.Grounded Theory was the chosen research approach. Two sets of tape-recorded interviews were made with 11 patients in specialized palliative home care – a total of 20 interviews. The patients were also asked to write diaries about changes in their everyday feelings of hope within a 4-week period. Measurements of hope (HHI-S) and symptoms (ESAS) were also made at three occasions. Constant comparison of data was made during the analysis.The results showed that patients’ hope changed over time. Hope was described as a process involving a glimmering core of hope untouched by external circumstances (Study I). Hope was described in different processes, creation of a convinced hope, creation of simulated hope, collection and maintaining moments of hope and gradually extinct hope. The dying patient’s hope can be described as a gradual and successive adaptation process. Strategies for maintaining life were expressed to preserve the meaning in life, to communicate with others about life and death, to involve "fellow travelers" and to change focus. The strategy of preparing for death involved; taking responsibility for the future and seeing possibilities of living on even after death (Study II). The strategies were parallel to, and dependent on each other. It is important that health professionals understand the patient’s own strategies for maintaining life/hope, as well as the patient’s own preparations for death, so that hope is never taken away despite preparations at the end of life.In summary, hope can be interpreted as a changing process over time – a process that can change quickly, but is based on an inviolable core that is not easily moved by external circumstances. It is important that the health care personnel realize that patients simultaneously prepare for their deaths even as they try to maintain hope. Deeper understanding of what hope can mean for a patient can decrease the risk of hope being taken away during one’s final days.
|
|
